UN will not stop Syria sending weapons to Lebanon

By Harry De Quetteville and Michael Hirst

12:01AM BST 27 Aug 2006

The United Nations peacekeeping force to be deployed in Lebanon is facing further criticism after the admission that its forces will not even be allowed to intercept shipments of arms to Hezbollah from Syria.

Speaking in Brussels before heading to the region, Kofi Annan, pictured below, the UN Secretary-General, confirmed that the 15,000-strong force will not meet Israeli demands to police the routes used by the militia to smuggle missiles from Syria.

"Troops are not going in there to disarm - let's be clear," he said. Instead, the Unifil force will only carry out interception missions if asked by the Lebanese government - which has made no such request. Syria, meanwhile, accused by Israel of re-arming Hezbollah during the recent conflict, has said the deployment of any UN forces near its border would be considered a "hostile act".

Mr Annan's disclosure of more limits on the UN force's remit will act as a further blow to its credibility as a peacekeeping force. It is already devoid of any mandate to disarm Hezbollah of its existing weapons, and now appears powerless to stop the militia re-arming. Critics point out that new stocks of weapons and missiles could end up being used against the Unifil troops themselves, should their mission go awry and end up in clashes with Hezbollah fighters.

The Israeli government, which has argued that the force lacks a sufficiently robust mandate, said it doubted that Unifil would be able to make any worthwhile contribution if it was not able to prevent Hezbollah re-arming.

"Our expectation is that the international force will help the Lebanese army implement UN resolution 1701, which insists on an international arms embargo," Mark Regev, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, said. "If the international force doesn't meet those expectations then this window for changing the current reality will close".

Mr Annan is due to arrive in Beirut tomorrow to discuss the Unifil deployment, as well as measures to secure the border with Syria, with Faoud Siniora, the Lebanese prime minister.

On Friday, European nations pledged up to 7,000 troops to form the core of the force: 3,000 from Italy; 2,000 from France; 1,200 from Spain; 1,000 from Poland; 400 from Belgium and 200 from Finland. Muslim nations including Malaysia, Indonesia, and Burma have also given "firm commitments", said Mr Annan.

The bolstered force will back up 15,000 soldiers from the Lebanese army, who are supposed to be gradually establishing their remit over Hezbollah-held territory in southern Lebanon while Israel pulls out the remnants of its invasion force.

However, there remain serious doubts as to whether the force will be any more effective in curbing Hezbollah's activities than the existing UN troop presence, whose role was merely to observe. While Mr Annan described them the "backbone" of a strengthened UN peacekeeping force, their only clear mandate is to be able to shoot in self-defence.

Further doubts were sown last week by remarks from Philippe Douste-Blazy, the French foreign minister, who said the force would mark out "exclusion zones", in which armed militias would be disarmed, as "the best way to remove Hezbollah's weapons".

Removing Hezbollah's secret weapons stashes is instead a task left to the Lebanese army, but few believe they have the political will to do so.

General Jean Salvan, a French former commander of peacekeeping troops in Lebanon, is among those questioning the mission's potential effectiveness. "Hostilities were called off two weeks ago already," he said. "So Hezbollah has had plenty of time either to hide its equipment very well or to bring it back to secure zones."

He added that there was no guarantee that troops would not be attacked. "A lot of that depends on Syria, it depends on Iran, it depends on Israel and it depends on Hezbollah."

Questions also remain about whether a Lebanese mission could antagonize Islamic communities in contributor European nations - especially France - if clashes with Hezbollah take place. The French have emphasised the importance of including Muslim countries in the force.